


Denouement

by universe_c



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Awkwardness, Bathing/Washing, Hangover, M/M, Memory Loss, Vomiting, aftercare sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 01:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8125012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/universe_c/pseuds/universe_c
Summary: After months of pining for his neighbor, Kylo is devastated not to remember how they ended up naked and stuck together on the floor of an unfamiliar apartment.





	

Kylo Ren wakes up with a five-alarm hangover and his neighbor’s hair stuck to the come crust on his chest. Or maybe it’s just whatever kind of stickiness they both seem to be coated in. Ren squeezes his eyes shut and tries desperately to remember. It was New Year’s Eve?   No, wait. It’s not even winter yet. Whatever it is smells so sugary it’s making him nauseous. 

 

After months of pining for his neighbor, Kylo is devastated not to remember how they ended up naked and stuck together on the floor of an unfamiliar apartment. He’d be even more devastated to puke in his neighbor’s hair, though. So, with as little movement as possible, he tries to maneuver Hux to one side. 

 

Hux choses right then to wake up, a single pale eyes snapping open. Their skin makes an audible peeling noise as Hux leans up on one elbow. Hux’s other eye appears to be sealed closed by whatever is caught in his eyelashes. His hand is braced on Kylo’s chest.  Kylo can feel his heart beating under Hux’s slender fingers. Hux’s face is so blank. It’s always stony blank - Kylo likes that about him, how calm and collected he always seems. But in this particular circumstance, Kylo would really like some spark of acceptance or even acknowledgement. Instead, Hux looks as if he might be sick. 

 

Approximately twenty seconds later they are both in the bathroom, retching into the sink and toilet respectively.

 

What the ever-loving fuck did they  _ do _ last night, Kylo wonders. He flushes the toilet so he won’t have to look at the gelatinous black-brown-purple mass he just brought up. Hux runs the sink, slides to his knees and hands Kylo a cup of water. The water doesn’t stay down. Hux holds his hair back, shivering against his side as if he can’t support his own weight. 

 

“Shower,” Hux croaks. Kylo nods, panting.

 

He manages to sit them both on the edge of the tub, first using Kylo’s shoulder to lever himself up, then hauling Kylo after. Kylo sways and nearly falls when he reaches down to retrieve the thing stuck to his foot. It’s a long, thin scrap of fabric. Gold lame. 

 

“What the hell,” he mutters. 

 

Hux looks up from fiddling with the taps. His brow creases as he pulls the scrap from Kylo’s fingers, turning it in the light. He glances up at Kylo. Kylo looks away, face warming. Hux drops the fabric into the prim little bathroom wastebasket.

 

In the end, they slither into the bottom of the tub and sit there, letting the hot spray patter onto them. This tub would be crowded with just Kylo in it, and with both of them there’s no way to avoid touching. Hux uncurls Kylo’s limbs one at a time, running a washcloth meticulously over every plane of his body. Kylo takes it from him to scrub his own groin, and Hux uses his distraction to lather shampoo into Kylo’s hair. Hux rests back against Kylo’s chest as he finishes scrubbing his own legs. Kylo had known Hux was thin from the look of his wrists and craggy cheekbones. But he’s very different out of his usual formal business wear. Very present. 

 

They both have half a hard-on, pressed together in the bottom of the tub, hot water falling on them in a soothing rhythm. Kylo runs his fingers over Hux’s ribs, counting them. He still feels like absolute shit but he’s determined to take what he can until this weird, quiet spell between them shatters. Hux runs the washcloth idly across Kylo’s thigh and tips his head back against Kylo’s shoulder. They wake with a start as the water suddenly runs cold. Hux slaps the taps closed, then staggers to his feet in search of towels. 

 

Kylo finds himself wrapped in a robe several sizes too small for him. It barely covers his junk and has an elaborate monogram, but at least it’s black. Hux sits him on the lid of the toilet and spends a long time toweling his hair, then just running fingers through it. 

 

“Hux,” Kylo starts. It’s taken him a lot of minutes to work up to this. “Do you remember what-”

 

“No. I don’t.” Hux frowns at the air over Kylo’s shoulder. “Do you?”

 

“No,” Kylo says, miserable. “I had a weird dream about my fridge. And then we woke up. Like that.”

 

Hux’s frown deepens. He grabs the robe’s lapels and hauls Kylo to his feet. Kylo feels somewhat distantly that he shouldn’t like being manhandled. Hux is apparently strong enough to do it though, and he’s the right height to kiss without bending down hardly at all. Not that he’s done that. That he remembers. 

 

Standing makes Kylo’s brain feel like it might do some kind of emergency ejection out of his skull.

 

“Water. Food. Painkillers,” Hux says. “Come on.” 

 

“I should really. Uh. I have clothes just across the hall?”

 

Hux blinks at him. That stone-faced look is still failing to reassure Kylo. Maybe Hux is in shock. Maybe they both are. 

 

“Very well,” Hux says. He extracts his fists from the robe, takes half a step back. He’s still only wearing a towel around his waist “I’m going to make us some eggs. Come right back.” 

 

Kylo nods, which is a mistake. Hux catches him when he stumbles, but they are both wobbly and end up resting together against the hallway wall. Kylo very nearly kisses him. His face is right there. He can still taste bile faintly in the back of his throat. 

 

The hallway is cold. Freezing, really. And the carpet is wet. 

 

The door to Ren’s apartment is missing. The rest of Ren’s apartment is also missing, walls open to the harsh October sky, his belongings reduced to a litter of wreckage.

 

Hux comes running when he yells. Kylo won’t let himself be dragged away, though, until he finds his cello. Hux seems unperturbed by his swearing and kicking through the debris. He does, however, stop Ren from throwing anything over the edge of the building into the traffic below. They both pointedly ignore the newly exposed stairs to the roof.

 

Hux goes looking for shoes to protect Kylo’s bare feet from the broken glass and finds the cello in the bottom of his coat closet. It is, somehow, the only part of the apartment still intact. The cello case looks completely unblemished, but every string on it is broken, as well as every horsehair on his bow. It’s so baffling that Kylo puts his fist through the soggy remains of his wall. 

 

Hux helps him gather up all his coats and shoes from the closet. They cram them all into Hux’s coat closet instead, a mirror of his own and already piled high with expensive looking loafers and pea coats. Hux serves him asprin, water, and a side of spinach and mushroom omelette. Kylo is contemplating whether he can hold back tears when there’s a pounding on the door. 

 

It’s Kylo’s uncle  _ and _ all three of his assistants. Hux stonewalls them but Kylo knows they won’t give up until they see him. 

 

They’re wearing matching jumpsuits. God, his family is so  _ embarrassing. _

 

“I’m  _ fine,” _ he says, glaring at them over Hux’s shoulder. “We were out when. The gas leak.”

 

He and Hux agreed it must have been a gas leak. He’s lucky he wasn’t home at the time.

 

“There was no gas leak, Ben.” Rey says. “Do you not remember?” 

 

“That would be understandable, given the circumstances. But, hey, isn’t this the sexy nerd neighbor you’ve been obsessing over? What are the odds, huh?” Poe Dameron, Luke’s post-doc, leers at Hux’s still-bare chest then winks at Kylo. Finn is trying not to laugh. Kylo fucking hates them all.

 

“Please, everyone,” Luke says, brandishing one of his ridiculous toys. “Gossip is the least of our concerns when the PKE readings in the area are still elevated. Ben, we need to ensure your contact with the entities didn’t-”

 

Kylo sighs, loudly. “For the last  _ fucking _ time, Luke, there is  _ NO _ SUCH THING AS  **_GHOSTS_ ** . Leave us  **_ALONE._ ** ”

 

He dearly wishes to slam the door in his uncle’s face.  But Hux is still standing there, blocking its arc, one eyebrow creeping toward the stratosphere. Kylo settles for stomping down the hallway hard enough to hurt his feet. There’s a trail of gold lame scraps and dried stickiness all the way from the door into the living room.

 

“Leave, or I’ll call building security,” Hux says, then shuts the door. Kylo can hear him throwing the deadbolt and rattling the chain into place. 

 

“Sorry,” Kylo mutters. 

 

“For what?” Hux asks. “Finish your water.”

 

Hux settles them both on the couch, maneuvering Kylo’s head into his lap and pushing his fingers through Kylo’s damp hair. He puts on some documentary about wolves, and Kylo pretends to watch it. It’s better than, like, financial news or whatever it is accountants usually watch. Though he’d watch basically anything if it meant his unattainably hot, stern, distant neighbor would keep petting his hair. Kylo tries to just enjoy it and not think too hard.

 

Eventually, the documentary ends. Hux turns off the TV. When Kylo goes to sit up, Hux stops him.

 

“I had hoped our first… date… would be. More memorable.” Hux says. His forehead gets that little crease. He’s frustrated, Kylo realizes. “I’d made at least five different strategic plans to ask you out. I was. Hm. Still refining them.”

 

“This is good,” Kylo says, too quickly, his hand clamping too hard on Hux’s knee. “I’m good like this. Breakfast was good.”

 

“Good. Did you have renter’s insurance?”

 

“Renter’s - no. Just on the cello. I don’t really know what I’m going to do.” 

 

“You’re staying here, obviously. That’s - If you want to.” Hux says. “I’ll give you my spare key.”

 

Some bubble of memory tries to rise to the surface of Ren’s mind - Hux’s flame-red hair haloed in the light from the lamp behind him; a sensation of floating; roiling clouds; heat and cold and orgasmic vertigo. But then Hux is folding down over him  and pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth like a question. His slender fingers slip into the robe as Kylo kisses back and he thinks it’s fine that it’s too small. It’s good. Now is good.

**Author's Note:**

> the crossover no one wanted, needed, or asked for lol


End file.
